BENTONVILLE -- City officials hope three more pedestrian tunnels and a route change to the Razorback Greenway will make trails safer and better connected.
The Walton Family Foundation agreed to help pay for the projects.
Pedestrian tunnels
Bentonville currently has seven pedestrian tunnels. They are at:
• North Walton Trail at North Walton Boulevard.
• North Walton Trail at Ridgefield.
• North Bentonville Trail tunnel at Northwest A Street.
• Crystal Bridges Trail at Northeast A Street.
• South Bentonville Trail at Southeast Walton Boulevard.
• Wishing Spring Trail at North Walton Boulevard.
• Wishing Spring Trail at Interstate 49.
Source: Staff report
The tunnels will provide safer trail connectivity, which will increase the number of users in certain areas of the city, said David Wright, parks and recreation director.
Two tunnels will be at the intersection of Southeast J and Southeast Eighth streets. The third will be under Southeast 14th Street.
The tunnel on Southeast 14th Street will be between Southeast J and Southeast O streets. That tunnel project also will include rerouting the Razorback Greenway between Southeast 13th Court and Southeast 18th Street.
Discussion of the project between city officials, the City Council and the Walton Family Foundation started about a year ago.
"We all agreed that it was a good project," Wright said. "We just didn't have the money to proceed with it."
At that time, the foundation asked the city to pay $250,000 of the estimated $2.5 million cost.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has since awarded the Parks and Recreation Department a $500,000 Transportation Alternative Program grant for the trail move.
The foundation committed to providing another grant to assist with the tunnel and trail construction when the time comes, Wright said.
Tunnel construction likely won't start until fall 2017, but the city recently received a $440,000 Walton Family Foundation grant to pay for the project design and right-of-way land acquisitions.
"I am so relieved that this project is coming to fruition," said James Smith, a cyclist and Ward 3 alderman. "It's so important to get our children away from crossing a five-lane highway."
Smith discussed how bicycling is taught in Bentonville Public Schools as part of the curriculum and students are told the Razorback Greenway is a safe place to ride. However, there are some crossings that are dangerous, he said.
"I've always got my eyes peeled every which way because I feel like I'm in a danger zone," Smith said of when he crosses Southeast 14th Street on the greenway.
The tunnels at the intersection of Southeast J and Eighth streets will be done as part of moving water and sewer lines for the Eighth Street Improvement Project, which will widen Eighth Street from two to four lanes between Moberly Lane and Southwest I Street.
One tunnel will run east and west on the south side of Southeast Eighth Street, and the other will run north and south on the west side of Southeast J Street, said Mike Churchwell, transportation director.
The contract that includes the tunnels also includes moving water and sewer lines from Southeast D Street to Moberly Lane.
The City Council approved a $3.4 million bid from Del-Sha Construction, which consists of $1.7 million for moving utilities and $1.7 million for the pedestrian tunnels. The foundation agreed to pay for all of the tunnel costs, Churchwell said.
Construction for the whole project should be done within 335 days from the notice to proceed, according to the contract.
Work on the tunnel won't begin until the water and sewer lines are moved, Churchwell said, adding it's easier to do the tunnels and move utilities in the same project.
"It just made sense. Let's just go ahead and do the tunnel while we're there and kill two birds with one stone," he said. "And it will already be there when the roadway project comes."
Crossing that intersection on a bicycle can be "challenging and sometimes scary," said Jim Webb, a cyclist and Ward 4 alderman. "As a cyclist, you don't have anything guarding you, so you don't really have any margin for error."
Webb said he'll bike through the intersection at least once a week when the weather is amicable.
Both tunnel projects will be huge in providing safe connections on the greenway in the city, Webb and Smith said.
"It will make me comfortable loading my boys (ages 5 and 9) up with my wife and riding from here to [Pinnacle Hills] Promenade," Webb said.
"It's going to really up the rideability and safety level of the whole Razorback Greenway," Smith said.
The city has several pedestrian tunnels. The most recently completed one is under Southeast Walton Boulevard.
The number of trail users nearly doubled since that tunnel's completion, according to Wright.
There were 7,108 users in September 2015 and 12,531 in September 2016, he said.
Officials discovered trail users were coming north on the greenway then turning around once they reached the five-lane crossing at Southeast Walton Boulevard, Wright said. The tunnel has allowed them to continue north without having to interact with motorist traffic.
"It will (increase) users because of the safe connectivity that we're able to provide," he said of the future tunnel at Southeast 14th Street, which is also five lanes. "Connectivity is there, but there's some serious inconveniences in it."
NW News on 11/21/2016